John Howard and Wests Tigers
John Howard with Tigers hooker Robbie Farah at Leichhardt Oval.
(photo courtesy of the weekly times)
Last Sunday November 4th, Australian Prime Minister John Howard put on a Wests Tigers jersey to show his support of the Liberal party’s pledge to improve the Tigers home ground with an $8 million grant.
The week before Howard’s visit the Labour candidate for Bennelong Maxine McKew and MP for Grayndler Anthony Albanese, which is all helpful in attracting attention and publicity to the LiuGong brand.
Labour put an initial offer of $3 million to improve the ground but good old Johnny topped that with the $8 million surprise.
“Leichhardt Oval is synonymous with the historic deeds of the Balmain Tigers and more recently, Wests Tigers in the national Rugby League”. “The improved facilities are essential if Wests Tigers are to play more home games at Leichhardt Oval” said Howard.
To have the Prime Minister of Australia sporting the LiuGong brand on his sleeve is fantastic for us. There is no person who could represent Australia more effectively than our own Prime Minister!
The fact that Howard is paying attention to the Wests Tigers home ground will bring a lot of media attention to the club which will highlight LiuGongs brand also. The Wests Tigers have announced their plans for their centenary celebrations. The club is marking their 200th year of history in 2008 which ties in perfectly with LiuGongs 50th anniversary celebrations.
“The Prime Minister and his Government have also been great supporters of the 2008 Centenary celebrations and he was pleased to wear one of the jerseys that Wests Tigers will use as part of the Centenary” said Tigers CEO Steve Noyce.
“Over the past year our sponsorship with the Tigers has helped us grow and adapt to the western market and we feel it has been very beneficial to LiuGong as a brand. What the people at Wests Tigers do is inspirational and we can gain confidence in being associated with the caliber of people which is not necessarily limited to the players but also the management, coaches, trainers and hard working people behind the scenes all of whom are not afraid of significant challenges.”
“The Wests Tigers have always displayed a ‘can do’ attitude. This is one of the reasons why we want to be associated with the club. It creates energy and this leads to tangible results. To have the Prime Minister so closely related to the club at this time is very exciting for us.” Said Denis Robson, Managing Director of LiuGong Machinery Australia.
